Product Description

Discover the legendary treasures of Tutankhamen. You travel through tortuous paths to arrive at the vault of the Pharaoh. Alabaster lamps, golden daggers and splendid masks lie waiting for you. But beware! The other players will try to snatch the most valuable treasures from right before your eyes. The player who chooses the best path becomes the richest archaeologist and wins the game.

Product Reviews

Wow, what a great game. Definitely not quick and light fare, especially if you take your gameplaying seriously. With two players it is a brain-wrecking game of strategy. Very, very simple to play, but you are constantly watching the path of treasures and what your opponent has accumulated so far that it may take some time for a player to make his/her move (set a time limit). Absolutely no luck here, it's you and your brain, good luck!

For value, this one only gets 2 stars, one for uniqueness and one for creativity from designer Reiner Knizia. I was fortunate to track it down some months ago when it was in the $20s, and that's where the 3rd star comes in. But at much more than that, the game is overpriced for what you get: thick cutouts of relics, several wooden pawns, and a colorful Tut scoreboard.

But you also get game play that's novel for a "boardgame" as there's no board, just a trail of relics in various sets of various point totals that you spread out at random in a meandering path. You move as far down the path as you'd like, but there's no turning back. There's also no luck, which I like. It's simply your choices vs. that of the other relic collectors. You have to pay as much attention to what they're collecting as to what you're collecting.

It has gotten mixed reviews from other folks I've played with over the course of a number of months. One avid gamer whose opinion I value didn't like it at all. I wasn't sure I really liked when I first played it, and even now--several plays later--I'm still not sure, and that's not good. The game's not bad, but it seems there's something lacking. I agree with a prior review, it can be a brain drain, and maybe that's what I don't like. I prefer games where the assessment of how the players are doing is readily apparent, and doesn't require neuron-draining calculations. Sure, you can see the scores on the Tut-board, but in figuring what you and they can do with what's available on the relic path is another matter... too much thinking! For some gamers, that may be a plus.

Still, I'm hanging on to it for now, and every once in a while I dust it off.

Rick Soued

December 23, 1997

Nominated for German Game of the Year in 1993, the thing I like best about this game is
that I still can't figure out if there is a "best" strategy to employ--and I've played
the game a dozen times or more. Highly and enjoyably playable by 2 to 6 players, this
game takes 3 minutes to explain and 30 minutes to play--but don't let that fool you.
It's still sufficiently complicated to be interesting and challenging to gamers and
non-gamers alike. Players take turns laying out a path of artifacts on a trail which
leads to the Tomb of Tutankamen. You may move as far forward (but never backward) as you
want on each turn. You pick up the artifact you land on, and when the last one of any
given type of artifact is picked up, the players with the most and second most artifacts
of that type score points. Try it, you'll like it. And let me know if you figure out
that elusive optimal strategy.

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